Gay Issue Embroils Boy Scouts After a Chapter's Policy Memo

Published: December 19, 1996

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 18—
A small semantic shift in an internal memorandum at a Boy Scout chapter here has reignited the often volatile issue of homosexuality in the Scouts.

The San Francisco Examiner reported last week that the San Francisco Bay Area Council of Boy Scouts, which represents 33,000 Scouts and 5,500 Scout leaders in San Francisco and Alameda Counties, had quietly approved a policy that would allow gay men and boys to participate in Scout activities as long as members did not openly advocate homosexuality. It was a move that would seemingly run counter to the Boy Scouts' longstanding opposition to homosexuals in their ranks.

The new guideline, outlined in a confidential memorandum disclosed to the press, was said to be modeled after the armed forces' ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy in that it would forbid Scout leaders to question members or other leaders about their sexual orientation.

''The Boy Scouts of America does not ask prospective members about their sexual preference, nor do we check on the sexual orientation of boys who are already in scouting,'' the new policy stated. ''We allow youth to live as children and enjoy scouting without immersing them in the politics of the day.''

The Bay Area council's chief executive, Steve Barnes, said the statement was an interpretation of national rules and was intended to redefine scouting as ''asexual and apolitical.'' The policy had been approved by the national office of the Boy Scouts, Mr. Barnes said.

Gay rights advocates praised the move. ''This may be a sign that the Boy Scouts will be prepared for the 21st century,'' Jon W. Davidson, a lawyer for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles, a national gay legal group, said.

But the suggestion that the Boy Scouts might be amending their ban, even slightly, was enough to flood switchboards at the organization's national headquarters in Irving, Tex., with calls from parents, scoutmasters and reporters.

National leaders said that there had been no shift in policy. ''The fact is nothing, nothing, has changed regarding our policy regarding homosexual members,'' the Scouts' national spokesman, Greg K. Shields, said last week in a telephone interview. ''We don't allow registration of avowed homosexuals.''

Mr. Shields said that although the national legal office had been notified that the San Francisco group was drafting a statement, national officials had not seen it The national office generally gives local offices some discretion to interpret national guidelines, he said.

He declined to release the written policy of the Boy Scouts regarding sexuality but said that the Bay Area group's version ''was close to the national office.''

The national office does not mandate inquiries on sexual orientation, Mr. Shields added, and does not include questions about sexual orientation on its standard application forms. But it does allow local councils to question leaders about their sexuality, he said.

The Scouts, a private organization with 4.2 million members, has barred homosexuals since its founding in 1910. The ban has withstood several legal challenges, including a 1981 lawsuit, now under review by the California Supreme Court. That suit was brought by a former Eagle Scout who was dismissed as an assistant scoutmaster after he disclosed his homosexuality.